This is a blogg* to share my eXcess; that which reached, touched, entertained or angered me, in general all that draws my interest and thereby transmutes my Xsistance.
Eclectic music, metaphysics, (pre)history, conspiracies against humanity, the environment.

Jun 11, 2016

RhoDeo 1623 Grooves

Hello, it would have been Prince's 58th birthday this week instead this was publicized earlier this week

Toxicology tests for Prince concluded that the entertainer died from an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl, according to a report on his death by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office.

Fentanyl, prescribed by doctors for cancer treatment, can be made illicitly and is blamed for a spike in overdose deaths in the United States. It's 25 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.Prince, whose full name was Prince Rogers Nelson, died April 21 at age 57, after being found unresponsive in an elevator at Paisley Park, his home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota.

The report from the medical examiner's office, which was released on Twitter, didn't provide many details. "How injury occurred: The decedent self-administered fentanyl," the report said. For manner of death, a box was marked for "accident."The report didn't specify how the drug was taken and if the fentanyl was prescribed or illegally made.The music superstar weighed 112 pounds (50kg) and was 63 inches (1m58) tall when he died, the report said. He was wearing a black cap, shirt, pants, boxer briefs and socks and a gray undershirt, the report said. His occupation was listed as "artist" and his business as "music."

Case closed for one of the 76 fentanyl victims that day, CDC reports every 19 minutes someone dies from this opoid (26,000 yearly). Strong opiates are known for depressing respiration. In an overdose, an individual may cease breathing entirely (go into respiratory arrest) which is rapidly fatal without treatment. Opioids, in overdose or combined with other depressants, are notorious for such fatalities.

Fentanyl is a potent, synthetic opioid analgesic with a rapid onset and short duration of action.It is a strong agonist at the μ-opioid receptors. Fentanyl is approximately 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and roughly 40 to 50 times more potent than pharmaceutical grade (100% pure) heroin. Note; there's even opoids a 100 times more potent than Fentanyl, somehow the pharmaceutical industry has seen plenty of profit in researching extremely addictive opoids, in contrast to say Antibiotics (until millions of westerners start dying that is).

That said I find it bordering of negligence if nobody from Prince's inner circle didn't explicitly warn him that he was dancing with death and that everyday 77 people die of that drug, being of small posture he was even more at risk.

Today's artist will be with us for sometime here after all he has an enormous ouvre with lot's unreleased stuff as well. He commands the biggest space in my collection. Normally i'd post chronically but this time i will post cross his discography starting with one from 4 different decades. You can wait to see what i'll post or your welcome to request a title ... N'joy

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In April 2016, the world was rocked by news of the death of Prince Rogers Nelson. One of music’s - or more correctly, modern culture’s - biggest ever stars, Prince was a man of small stature whose shadow of influence was mind-boggling large. Immediate musical tributes from fellow 80s icon Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, country star Chris Stapleton, the cast of the hit musical Hamilton, and many others were testament to the respect the man and his music were held in.

For much of the public, Prince was a ‘star’; a hell of a performer who they might have seen playing guitar and piano in different music videos. What most musicians knew, however, was that Prince was - beyond his singing, his dancing, his band-leading skills, and his audio production talents - a skilled instrumentalist of the highest order, on not only the guitar and piano, but drums, bass guitar and more. Indeed, it is difficult for anybody who hasn’t played each particular instrument to truly appreciate how good he actually was.

It is silly to have debates about “was Prince a better guitarist than Clapton” or whoever - there are many ways to value a musician’s skill, whether it’s technical, historical knowledge, talent at improvising, or ability to play ‘for the song’ (among others). Let’s just say that Prince’s live band (on record, he often played all the instruments himself) was filled with musicians of the highest calibre - and if Prince ‘blind’-auditioned for each of the parts of his own band, he would probably have got all of the gigs based purely on his skill on guitar, bass, keyboard and drums.

The almost supernatural array of talents that Prince possessed are enough to have made many wonder as to how anyone could have assembled such a formidable skill-set - remembering that much of it was already fully formed at the time of his debut album, in his teens (go back and listen to his debut album For You, with tracks such as “Just as Long as We’re Together” sounding like an extremely tight band of talented musicians - but it’s all him).

Most accounts of Prince’s life put his skill set down to the twin factors of being a ‘functional orphan’ - he was largely abandoned by each of his parents in turn, and so is said to have spent much of his time playing music - who nevertheless inherited from those parents some serious musical acumen (his father was a jazz pianist, and his mother a singer). His unfortunate family situation - along with his extremely short stature (Prince only stood 5’3”) - are also claimed to have made him absolutely driven to prove himself to the world.

But could there have been an additional factor at work?

Many people are musically talented. Many also become extremely proficient at their chosen instrument at a young age. However, Prince’s abilities, excelling on multiple instruments, verge on the spooky - the type of talent that gives rise to ‘down at the crossroads’ mythologies. He mastered a variety of instruments rapidly in his youth, to the point of being able to play all of the instruments on his debut album while still in his teens.

With his estate in confusion following his tragic passing, and his legendary control of material being posted online at least temporarily on hold, YouTube has been flooded with video examples of his wonderful talent (though how long they will remain is another question). Here are just a few isolated examples, among many:

The now-famous ripping guitar solo on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

Matt Thorne, in his biography Prince: The Man and His Music, notes that Prince composed his first song at age 7 – a common marker of child prodigies. And Touré, in his biography I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon, notes that “part of why Prince was so knowledgeable at such a young age is because he was able to soak in sonic information at an extraordinary rate”. Touré quotes Dez Dickerson, who played guitar with Prince from 1979 to 1983, as saying that one of Prince's chief strengths "was his ability to observe, assimilate and then reinterpret.”

NPG band member Sonny T, who was a friend of Prince in his teen years, learning and playing music together, also noted this unearthly learning ability in an interview with Guitar World in 1994. He remembered that Prince was an extremely fast learner, to the point of being able to simply echo what he heard, and also seemed to possess perfect pitch (being able to identify the pitch of a note simply by hearing it): “Oh, man! Photographic memory. Anything you played for him, he could repeat it. I’ve never seen anything like it. He’s definitely got perfect pitch. Anything he hears, he can play.”

The Aloof Genius

The oft-portrayed image of Prince as an aloof and sometimes uncaring genius, while not completely deserved, certainly had its basis in reality. Biographer Matt Thorne notes that Prince's early life was "characterised by aloofness and isolation”. Despite his love of music from an early age, the school’s band directors could never persuade him to join up, with Prince instead spending much of his time alone, playing guitar to himself. Even in his late teens, those who worked with him found the relationship a one-way street. One of his first recording collaborators, Chris Moon, recounted that he "was painfully, painfully shy and extremely introverted”. Another, Don Taylor, was said to have "found Prince emotionless”.

Touré too notes that in high school, Prince "was an introvert and a loner…[with an] inability, or lack of interest, in connecting with people.” And later in life, “even though Prince was extremely mature in some ways, he remained immature in others. He never developed the basic social skills and the ability to be comfortable with people.” In I Would Die 4 U, Touré quotes Alan Leeds - who as Prince's long-time ‘road manager’ became one of his closest associates (if there was anybody who could be described as such) in affirming that Prince’s difficulty relating to people in small groups or one on one followed him into adulthood:

He doesn’t have normal relationships…He’s not a person who finds it easy to share, whether its his thoughts or his time or his energy. If it isn’t within the context of a specific purpose he doesn’t enjoy or solicit sharing life… He’s a very distant personality. Prince isn’t close to anybody. He’s a very, very emotionally aloof person. I don’t know anybody who’s ever gotten past that wall.

And Alan Leeds' brother Eric, who as saxophonist in Prince’s band had one of the longest working relationships with him (sax was one of the few instruments Prince did not play), reinforced that view in commenting that “Prince always looked at his band as being his family, but he did not know how to express those feelings or have those relationships in a normal sense.”

end of part one, more next week

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The picture of an Afro-ed Prince, then 20, with a blurry light-motion effect on the right side of his head, is his introduction to the world. His opening album is a mixture of disco, funk, and romantic soul. The title track opens with a capella dreamy falsetto and backing vocals by Prince himself. It might as well symbolize the dawn of Prince. The use of the Poly-moog synthesizer and funky beats of the pleasant skip of "In Love" gives credence to Prince as being touted by his then-manager, Owen Husney, as the next Stevie Wonder. The danceable "Soft And Wet" became Prince's first single, and it's easy to see why. There's even a good Arp solo here. It also has the sexual suggestiveness that would later explode with his Dirty Mind album. The relaxing "Crazy You" has the feeling of watching a quiet tropical evening sunset. It also features water drums. Listen to this track and it won't be hard to pick them up. The longest song here (6:24), "Just As Long As We're Together" is his shot at classic disco with a funky instrumental in the latter half of the song. This races even quicker than "Soft And Wet", which may explain why it also became a single. It's as engaging as the Bee-Gee's "You Should Be Dancing". He's credited with a lot of instruments, but clearly not the mirror ball, which he should have been on this song. "Baby" is a lovey-dovey slow-dance number with shots of quick disco at the chorus. However, the subject matter is about a man discussing "Baby, what are we gonna do?" because his girl is pregnant. He promises to love and adore her and wishes that the baby's eyes are just like hers.

"My Love Is Forever" also belongs in the disco camp, and while not as floor-burning as "Just As Long As We're Together", might as well be comparable to the Bee-Gees' "More Than A Woman". Nice guitar solo near minute three of the song. According to lore, Prince began as such a perfectionist that he waited to catch a cold before recording "So Blue", which kind of aims at being a hybrid of soul and bossa nova. He misses his girl so much that "even though the sun is shining, I spend my days crying over you." The closing number "I'm Yours" has a fiery REO Speedwagon type guitar solo, and becomes more rock as a result. Kind of a foreshadowing of what he would use in Purple Rain, yes? He laces his funky rhythms with the guitar throughout the song. Prince uses his falsetto voice here prominently, the sole exception being "Just As Long As We're Together" something he would do for his next two albums. So, who does the guitars here? Prince. The piano? Prince. Backing vocals? Prince. The moogs, bongos, Orr bass, synthesizer bass? Prince, Prince, Prince, and, uh... oh yeah, Prince! This album and not his second album should've been titled Prince, because of the many instruments he plays. It's all a one-man affair on For You. An impressive debut album, although it pales when put next to his subsequent output.

01 For You 1:06
02 In Love 3:38
03 Soft And Wet 3:01
04 Crazy You 2:17
05 Just As Long As We're Together 6:24
06 Baby 3:09
07 My Love Is Forever 4:09
08 So Blue 4:26
09 I'm Yours 5:01
bonustracks
10 Make It Through the Storm 2:42
11 Just Another Sucker 5:18
12 We Can Work It Out 2:58

Undaunted by the criticism Around the World in a Day received, Prince continued to pursue his psychedelic inclinations on Parade, which also functioned as the soundtrack to his second film, Under the Cherry Moon. Originally conceived as a double album, Parade has the sprawling feel of a double record, even if it clocks in around 45 minutes. Prince & the Revolution shift musical moods and textures from song to song -- witness how the fluttering psychedelia of "Christopher Tracy's Parade" gives way to the spare, jazzy funk of "New Position," which morphs into the druggy "I Wonder U" -- and they're determined not to play it safe, even on the hard funk of "Girls and Boys" and "Mountains," as well as the stunning "Kiss," which hits hard with just a dry guitar, keyboard, drum machine, and layered vocals. All of the group's musical adventures, even the cabaret-pop of "Venus de Milo" and "Do U Lie?" do nothing to undercut the melodicism of the record, and the amount of ground they cover in 12 songs is truly remarkable. Even with all of its attributes, Parade is a little off-balance, stopping too quickly to give the haunting closer, "Sometimes It Snows in April," the resonance it needs. For some tastes, it may also be a bit too lyrically cryptic, but Prince's weird religious and sexual metaphors develop into a motif that actually gives the album weight. If it had been expanded to a double album, Parade would have equaled the subsequent Sign 'o' the Times, but as it stands, it's an astonishingly rewarding near-miss.

Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in 1993, but it wasn't until 1995 that he actually released a record credited to that symbol. During those two years, he released a greatest-hits collection, an official version of his much-bootlegged Black Album, and a final Prince album, the lackluster Come. Throughout 1994, he pressured Warner to release another album, The Gold Experience, but the company refused and he staged a public protest in the media, calling himself a slave to the label. By the summer of 1995, the artist and the company had made amends and the record was released in the fall. In a way, The Gold Experience lives up to the manufactured hype created while it languished on the shelf. More of a creative rebirth than a change in direction, the record finds Prince and the New Power Generation running through a typically dazzling array of musical styles, subtly twisting new sounds out of familiar forms. Much like The Love Symbol Album, it follows a loose concept, interweaving a variety of pop, funk, rock, soul, and jazz styles into a vague story. Song for song, The Gold Experience is slightly stronger than its predecessor, as Prince's melodies are more immediate, especially on the Philly soul tribute "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and the pure pop of "Dolphin." Also, the band's performance is lively and confident, bringing an effortless virtuosity to funk workouts ("P Control"), and fuzzed-out rockers ("Endorphinmachine"), as well as ballads like "Eye Hate U." The Gold Experience is somewhat weighed down by interludes that attempt to further the story but wind up interrupting the flow of the music, yet that doesn't stop the album from this being one of Prince's most satisfying efforts.

Musicology was a self-conscious comeback, a record designed to return Prince to the spotlight and the charts, and it worked: even if it spawned no big hits, the 2004 LP became his first album to crack the Billboard Top Ten since 1995's The Gold Experience, get a fair amount of radio play, and get a bunch of positive press, along with a well-received tour. Prince no longer seemed like an eccentric consigned to the fringes: he seemed like a savvy pro, reclaiming a reputation and respect that he'd lost. That he did it with an album that sounded uncannily like a deliberate return to classic Prince as performed by the New Power Generation was almost beside the point: it was enough that he sounded engaged, and that he made a focused, purposeful album. Its quickly delivered 2006 follow-up, 3121, proves that Musicology was no fluke. Like its predecessor, 3121 is tight and concise, offering 12 songs in 53 minutes, and it's classically structured, emphasizing shifting moods and textures between songs. It is an album, not a collection of songs, and you could even call it old-fashioned, but it feels fresher than Musicology, as if Prince had listened to enough Neptunes productions to understand how they've absorbed his music. That acknowledgement doesn't come often -- it's evident in the sly, sexy grooves of "Black Sweat" and the squealing synths of "Lolita" -- but since it's paired with an emphasis on dance tunes and a retreat from the enjoyable but endless NPG-styled vamping that characterized a good portion of Musicology, 3121 winds up sounding lively, varied, and, at its best, exciting. And at the beginning of the album, 3121 is quite exciting, as Prince revives his high-pitched alter ego Camille on the title track and dives head first into the electro-funk of "Lolita" and "Black Sweat," songs that recall such mid-period masterpieces as "Kiss" or "Sign 'O' the Times" without being rewrites. Nevertheless, the fact that the freshest sounding music here still has a direct line back to records Prince made 20 years prior is a good indication that the album, like Prince himself in the wake of hip-hop, is a little bit conservative, emphasizing funk of both the James Brown and George Clinton varieties, late-night slow jams, classic dance, and soul, instead of wrestling with modern music. While that may disappoint some listeners who yearn for the return of the trailblazing Prince of the '80s, when he reinvented himself with each record, it's hardly surprising that a 47-year-old musician is spending more time refining his palette than expanding it. What is a surprise is that Prince is in top form as both a writer and record-maker; perhaps the one-man-band nature of its recording doesn't mean the album is as gritty or raw as his reliably thrilling live performances, but 3121 crackles with excitement, filled with different sounds and styles. Best of all, this is filled with songs that hold their own as individual tunes, yet gel into a cohesive record that is thankfully devoid of an overarching concept, a problem that plagued his albums after Diamonds and Pearls. 3121 does fall short from being perfect -- there may be no bad songs, but the momentum slows ever so slightly on the second half -- yet it's something more valuable than being a one-off classic: it's proof that Prince has indeed returned as a vital, serious recording artist on his own terms. Maybe he's no longer breaking new ground, but his eccentricities are now an attribute, not a curse, which goes a long way in making his trademark blend of funk, pop, soul, and rock sound nearly as dazzling as it did at his popular and creative peak in the '80s.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Thanks Rho

Opened this entry while listening to 1-800 New Funk!

The original Black Album remains mighty hard to find. Keen followers should take a detour here, it is Prince at the peak of his powers:http://100greatestbootlegs.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/flac-prince-small-club-1988.html